World Diabetes Day shines light on disease afflicting millions

I am writing you to help spread information about World Diabetes Day which takes place on Nov. 14.

According to the National Institutes of Health, there are 23.6 million people in the United States.

In 2005, 20,000 adults in Alaska were diagnosed with diabetes and by 2007, 6 percent of the total adult population had been diagnosed with diabetes

Statistically, the odds are that the majority of your readers know someone with diabetes, have been diagnosed with diabetes, or have diabetes and do not know it yet.

CDC states that the number of people who die from diabetes complications would rank diabetes as high as the 4th leading killer in the U.S.

Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure, amputation, and blindness.

There is no cure for diabetes, but most of the complications from diabetes can be prevented if people are diagnosed and treated early.

You can learn more about this important event at: www.wddusa.org.

-- Tammy Gifford

Anchorage

How can we stop all the hatred?

Hate mongers have always been tolerated in our form of democracy, but lately their voices are becoming significantly more strident. I'm not talking about Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck. Those guys are paid big bucks to spew hatred. You can blame their sponsors! I'm talking about people like Congresswoman Bachman and former GOP majority leader Dick Armey and their hordes of Tea baggers, who have been polluting the airwaves recently. Those folks may look and act like cuckoo birds, but their message is absolutely clear -- "hate, hate, hate the federal government and everything it stands for, especially President Obama."

I believe fomenting so much animosity on the national level has unintended consequences, which we are also witnessing almost daily on the airwaves, i.e., the Holocaust Museum shooting, the Fort Hood shootings; and just recently another shootout in Orlando. Unbalanced folks are encouraged to act by the hate mongers. It won't do any good to ask the GOP to tone it down, and we can't prevent collateral damage. So, does anyone have a solution?

-- Sylvia M. Carlsson

Anchorage

School cuts are necessary

It's already started. Carol Comeau is already talking about how difficult it will be to cut $15 million from an almost $800 million annual budget. I'm sure this will bring every special interest group out into the public forum to protest.

Let's put this all into perspective. That is less than 2 percent of the budget submission, which continues to climb 3-4 percent every year despite the fact that future enrollment is projected to be flat.

That is $15,713 per student climbing to $17,663 in another three short years. How many of us have already had to cut 2 percent or more out of our annual budgets and ASD can't find that money? Why not start by laying waste to the number of management positions and special programs which have grown dramatically under Carol Comeau?

The truth is that the existing bureaucracy simply lacks the will to trim back their empire. Have some courage, School Board. Be part of the solution, not the problem.

-- Tom Wellman

Anchorage

Kudos for staying on top of Allen and his unethical associates

Thank you for your article on Bill Allen and the consequences of our political scandal (Oct. 29). I hope you will continue to report on this story and its ramifications. I believe we need to be reminded of what did happen in Juneau and strive to elect more ethical people to represent us both in Juneau and Washington, D.C.

Michael Carey's article ("Old welder ran roughshod over Alaska," Nov. 3), provides an equally important perspective of Allen's representation of the views and interests of the oil companies on taxes and regulation at the expense of the Alaskan people. Currently our senior senator and our representative to Washington have reportedly received financial support from health insurance companies and appear to be opposing efforts to reform our health care system despite the 66 percent of Americans who want health care reform. Is this politics as usual and do we want the status quo or do we want to improve our political system?

-- Hugh R. Hays

Soldotna

Drivers, give pedestrians a brake!

Recently I was attempting to cross the busy intersection at Northern Lights and Minnesota. Although the sign read "Walk," a half-dozen cars took a right turn without letting me cross the street. One woman even stiffened her arm toward me, mouthing "No" at me. When I was allowed to cross, I couldn't make it before the seconds indicated on the signal ran out.

In the last year, I've noticed that there are more bikers and pedestrians, many of them school children, in my midtown neighborhood. Instead of "Get the hell out of my way," wouldn't it be great if drivers started saying, "After you?"

-- Sherry Tomlinson

Anchorage

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